Category: summer

(scroll straight down if you just want the recipe, and none of my writing nonsense) “I sometimes think that people’s hearts are like deep wells. Nobody knows what’s at the bottom. All you can do is imagine by what comes floating to the surface every once in a while.” ~Haruki Murakami, “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman”… more

Have you noticed how HOT it is? Will we finally acknowledge that global warming is an actual fact rather than a theory? Who has the desire to go in the kitchen and turn on the oven? Not me! Does that mean I have to give up dessert? Not quite. I was reminded of no-bake desserts… more

Estate (summer) = fresh vegetables and herbs from the garden. Zucchini (or as the Brits call them, courgettes) are one of the most prolific ones (you would know if you have planted some)! And they are also one of my favorites, because there are no shortage of ways to prepare them. The trick is cooking… more

Summer is here. I like to eat more vegetables and stay lighter. I am sure many of you feel the same way… It’s a time to lighten our burdens, be they physical, mental, geographic (via travel), or dietary. Growing up in Italy, lunches in the summer were often a “panino” or a salad (ripe tomatoes… more

A few events recently have made me reconsider the pace at which I live my life (read => too fast!). I realized that I was caught in a speed spiral, always saying “yes” to everyone that asked me, always attending every event I was invited to, always trying to do everything “perfectly” (which just means… more

[Service announcement: If you’re a food blogger or writer, you are aware of the sadness this month with the sudden passing of Jennifer Perillo’s husband. Bloggers Without Borders is working to make sure that Jennifer and her girls (ages 3 and '8) will have some financial security and have created a fund for them. You… more

On Friday the thermometer hit 110 F (43 C) and it was the last day before school started. So I decided to take a day off work, drive down South Georgia, find a family farm, and go pick peaches with my children, 2 girlfriends and their respective kids. We piled up in a car,… more

“All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.” ~Paul Fussell You might have noticed that I have been… more

If childhood is the most beautiful of all man’s seasons and summer is the most beautiful of all year’s seasons, then childhood summers are the best seasons of life… I hope you’ll take time to savor a taste of my childhood summers, past the introduction on how this piece was conceived, by reading my post,… more

“A riempire una stanza basta una caffettiera sul fuoco” (To fill a room all you need is a coffee pot on the stove) ~Erri De Luca (Italian writer, and also the author of this other perfectly fitting quote for a post on the coffee moment: “Il presente è la sola conoscenza che serve”: the present… more